2026 Old Selam Day 3 - Riding with the famous Two Step Betty LTH

September 6 2026

Neither Willie nor I were tempted to do a 50 today (much less the 100 that our pasture mate DWA Papillon and Connie were attempting), so we slept in and saddled up for the LD.

I gave Willie a good walk-about warm up for 15 minutes before the start, and scouted out our competition. Not to see who we could beat, but to see who we might ride with, or, any hot horses we might avoid, as I just wanted, as always, an easy fun ride with no Rocket Pony beneath me to have to apply brakes to for 25 miles.

Nobody looked to be in a big rush anyway, with half the 12 starters standing around talking. Willie was a bit amped, but completely controllable, though I was glad I stuck with his Kemberwick bit and not his jaquima halter sidepull. On our walkabout we met Two Step Betty LTH with Jessica aboard; Betty pinned her ears at Willie, and Jessica laughed. “She hates everybody.”

And once the trail was open, a couple of riders took off, and we ended up walking out beside Betty and Jessica (with plenty of space in between). Betty wasn’t in a big hurry, just off on another day of endurance business, and Willie wasn’t in a big hurry, so we sort of headed out together. Once we crossed the creek and the road and started out on a two-track logging road, Betty was trotting ahead of us and going exactly the pace I wanted for Willie, which he was completely agreeable to. He had his head bowed to his chest, looking all macho and powerful, but he wasn’t pulling on the reins at all. I think Phinneas (RIP) taught Willie to do this, because it makes a horse look like a magnificent racehorse galloping on the track. 

Jessica said we could try riding with Betty, I said we’ll stay back, and if Betty gets mad, we will let you go ahead! We gave Betty plenty of space, which one should do anyway, and not ride up another horse’s butt, for so many reasons. I’m going to write an article on that one day, called “Get Off My A$$.”

But Betty was tolerating us, and our two horses paced really well together. Jessica is a rather amazing human being, not only for being an ICU nurse, but for being a heart transplant patient. For all she’s been through, she’s full of “joy, adventure, and gratitude.” (Read her story https://www.fiacardiac.org/updates/back-in-the-saddle-with-a-new-heart here.)

And Two Step Betty is her own story, a National Show Horse who was a rescue by Vera Kalila’s Love This Horse Equine Rescue in Tehachapi, California. Vera said about Betty in 2024: “The amazing thing about Betty is that she has been rejected and dumped so many times in her life. People misunderstand this mare. She is sweet to the core and has a heart. She loves being out on the trail… We rescued Betty at a loose horse auction in Billings, MT.”

Jessica and her mom Veronica adopted Betty, and despite Betty’s quirks (like hating all horses, even her pasture mates), Jessica loves her and has given Betty a home for life.

And despite her dislike of other horses, Betty not only tolerated Willie, but allowed him to trot up almost beside her at times. She pinned her ears spectacularly, but she sometimes let Willie stay there! 

Betty likes Willie close

Betty does not like Willie close

By the time we finished loop one and strolled into camp, our horses were already pulsed down to the required 60 bpm. During the vet check, Willie ate the entire 40 minutes, maybe the best eating he’d ever done before. 

Willie got to wear his jaquima halter side pull on loop 2. We met up with Jessica and Betty and headed out on our last loop. He could have worn it on loop 1, but I never know if I’m going to need powerful brakes or not, and if you leave camp without the bridle you need, well… good luck!

Neither Willie nor Betty drank on the first 16 mile loop (that’s normal for Willie), but on the second loop they drank from every water trough. After Betty took a good drink from the first trough, Jessica broke off and gave Betty a bite of carrot. Willie heard that Carrot Snap, and kind of horned his way over to Jessica’s saddle bag, innocently blinking his big brown eyes, so he mooched a carrot bite too. After every water trough thereafter, Willie sidled his way over to Jessica, expecting a treat from her! (Which she gave!)

Our horses easily cruised the 9 miles of loop 2, stopping only twice when we came across first one Renegade boot that had come off a horse, and then the other boot! We each rescued and carried a stinky boot in with us to the finish line.

With no racing, just an easy calm ride, we finished up in third and fourth. (That was Betty’s third day of LDs.) Willie and I showed for Best Condition, because we could, and Willie ended up with High Vet Score!

It was another super fun Old Selam ride, great trails, cool weather (!!!), and good peeps. It’s put on by our local SWITnDR club (SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders). I posted thanks on my FB page, but it all bears repeating here:

I know I will forget somebody, but, THANK YOU 😍 to all the SWITnDR (SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders) volunteers, before during and after the 3-day ride near Idaho City (with a 100 on day 3!), who helped put on this club ride. I hardly saw ride manager Debbie and trail marking Linda the whole weekend because they were constantly out on trail. Thank you to all who came out the week(s) before, and after, for marking and unmarking trail, and for those who came out for a day or the whole weekend for timing or pulsing, thank you too! Some of you I only got to say Hi to. Thanks Ann for your homemade cookies for us 'special' people 😀. Water troughs were at just the right places all over the trails (John and Carl I’m talking at you). Thank you Cini for being a member of our club and letting us have Ridecamp on your family’s property again! Thanks to Regina and to the vets, Robert and Cassie and we recruited and addicted a new vet Mikaela!

Also thanks to XG Smokehouse from Nampa who made the trip out for the weekend, their food is yummy and they worked tirelessly to keep us hungry monsters fed.

And thanks to Steve Bradley for taking the time to come out and stay and shoot all 3 days of the ride. And don’t forget the entertaining Samuel Anderson from the Old Idaho Penitentiary who came again to tell the story of our ride namesake Old Selam and a couple of other famous Idaho horses and outlaws on Saturday (check out their Behind Gray Walls podcast), and Cowgirl Poet Kathy Moss who entertained us with her poetry Sunday morning.

Hillbillie Willie’s Trick or Trot

October 25 2025

After some fabulous fall weather, wouldn’t you know the clouds massed for the last ride of the season, the 2-day Trick or Trot Halloween ride in Eagle. My plans were to ride a 25 on both Saturday and Sunday to wrap up the season, depending of course on how my horse felt and how the weather was. I was prepared and psyched up for rain, because it was coming, but all still depended on footing. 

I packed like 6 raincoats, 4 heavy coats, my still-to-be-used long chaps made of fleece on the inside and waterproof material on the outside, and a pair of shorts (just in case) plus various combos of riding gear, and Hillbillie Willie loaded up with DWA Papillon, DWA Barack, and DWA Saruq into Regina’s trailer Friday morning, and north we headed. Barack and Saruq were along for a vacay.

It’s the *worst* saddling up in the rain, and while it did rain a bit overnight, it was only drizzling when it came time to saddle up for the 8:30 AM 25-mile start on Saturday. Connie and Pappy had already set out on the 50 a half hour earlier, and Willie didn’t mind because DWA Barack and DWA Saruq had come along for the weekend and were keeping him company. (Saruq thought this was the Best Endurance Ride ever - come along to ridecamp and just eat all weekend!).

Willie and I had taken a warm-up hand-walk on Friday with Diamonds and Cat, and of course Willie took quite a shine to Diamonds, so they were going to be our riding partners on the 25-miler. Cat was dressed as a fabulous knight and of course Diamonds, 1/4 Shire and 3/4 Arabian, already looks like a knight’s steed, or a movie star horse.

Willie was a little amped as we warmed up around camp, but he kept his wits. Once trail was open, we actually started strolling out (yay!), then we picked up a (strong) trot. All the horses were feeling quite fresh in the cool light rain! We had about a mile along a flat road, and the further we went, the stronger Willie got, and when a high stepping hackney horse pranced past him, Willie cranked up the volume. The stronger Willie gets, the more he bows his neck and looks like a macho racehorse. Which he was, though at the track he motored down the track with his head up in the air.

We passed photographer Steve Bradley then took a left on a squishy 2-track road up into the Eagle foothills. Some spots were a little slick, but Willie was careful, and we had no slips. In fact the rest of the day things got wetter, and slippery-er in places, but Willie was so sure-footed, I had to think he raced in the mud, or he grew up in the mud. A lot of horses had trouble on the wet trails, and a good number of riders pulled partway through the first loop of the 50, but Willie was like a fish in water. After a couple of miles he stopped pulling and set to watching his feet, adjusting to the footing. If it looked slippery, he moved sort of cat-like, lighter, a little shorter strides, and if it looked deeper, he adjusted to that. I let him pick his path (sometimes he’d move over onto grass) and speed because he was making all the right decisions and taking care of both of us!

He wasn’t in a big hurry anyway, as now he not only had one pretty girl with him but two, Lady and Kinley joined in with us, and we just kept moving along steadily. 

It kept raining on us, sometimes harder, sometimes lighter, but when we climbed up on a ridge we had wind and rain/sleet battering us sideways, and we got pretty cold and soaked (except for Cat in her handy waterproof knight’s outfit). You know how horses will turn their butts to the wind/rain, sometimes even when you’re riding them? Willie didn’t do that. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain, from the side or the front; he seemed to be enjoying himself. I sure was, particularly because he was so sure-footed and I did not have to worry!!

As I got cold and soaked on that ridge, I was thinking I might or might not continue on loop two after the vet check, because surely the footing was going to be worse by loop 2… but then we descended, the wind lessened, the rain even let up, and I thought that if Willie passed the vet check, and he looked good during the hold, we’d continue on.

A bonus was that I got a complete change of clothes on during the hold (and Willie stayed toasty and dry under two blankets at lunch), fleece/waterproof long chaps (made by Joyce Kellenberger) and a long raincoat, and out we went for our last 10-mile loop. Again Willie handled the mud with ease, and we all eased into the finish, for a fabulous last ride of the season for Willie! (After it rained later that afternoon, HARD, with lightning and thunder!!!, I wasn’t going to risk going out on for sure muddier trails for the 25 on Sunday).

Thanks to all those indomitable, intrepid, fabulous SWITnDR members, SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders, our local club, for coming out to help in that awful wet cold weather you all stood or sat out in Saturday and Sunday while many of us had fun out riding where that weather wasn’t so miserable. And thanks to Debbie for putting this ride on, and may we all have fabulous weather in the spring at Eagle!

And big goal next year: a 50-miler gets us our Decade Team!!!! Fingers crossed!

2025 Old Selam Part III: Willie the Rocket Ship

August 31 2025 

So I trotted out for the vet Dick in the morning, and he said Willie looked fine. So, off Willie and I went on the day two 25-mile LD ride.

I had the plan of just ambling along on a pleasant trail ride LD for the day, because, you know, Willie ought to be a little tired from yesterday, right? 

And it started out that way. There were around 22 riders, and Willie was calm while we warmed up walking around camp. I always look for a little pocket where I might get a little Bubble, usually up near the front, not behind the fastest riders, but not where I’ll be tailed/chased closely by other riders.

And as the trail was announced open, three or four riders started walking out, which I thought was great. We fell in behind them, and walked out, and then they started trotting, but suddenly the front ones balked, and we got bunched up, and after they got going, they took off like a shot, and unfortunately, so did we. 

Oh heck no Willie was not tired. Or relaxed. Those riders up front were blasting down the trail and I was blasting after them on a rocket ship. I tried to convince him just to slow down a bit already, working hard on not just pulling but using strong seat and leg and *suggesting* with my hands on the reins to slow down… but it became more of a pullfest.

He pulled and pulled and at some point you have to decide, you’re both wasting so much energy pulling on each other, is it just better to let Willie go fast and stay with the fast horses, because that’s just how things work out sometimes.

At least the weather was nice and cool, and Willie felt perfectly sound. 

I was able to drop him back for a while, with another horse following me, but my hands would start to go to sleep trying to hold Willie back. He’s not always like this, but today he certainly was. 

So as you’d expect, the first 15 mile loop flew by really fast. Willie finally caught up with and rode with three others, (another lady had left everybody in the dust far ahead). And finally the last 5 miles or so, our group slowed down a bit, even walked up some hills, which was nice. I didn’t want to pass anybody, but their horses really started slowing down, so at the last water trough, Willie just went on ahead, much calmer, and on a loose rein, back into camp. 

He pulsed down right away, and I checked the out timer sheet later, and hooray, we were going to have our own lovely little Bubble on loop 2! We were about 10 minutes behind the first horse, and there was about eight minutes to the next horses behind us.

So I put on his jaquima halter for the last 9 mile loop, and OMG we had the best ride, cruising easily and comfortably, not fast and not slow, trotting along the winding soft logging roads in the forest, the trails to ourselves. This is what I hoped the first loop would have been like, but that’s okay, because loop 2 was so awesome!

Willie ended up finishing second, and I never felt a single bad step, so I said we would show for best condition.

At his 10 minute CRI Willie was 44-44 !!!!! The vet Robert said, “*Clearly* you overrode this horse.” 🤣

(For those who don’t know, the vet takes a pulse, the horse trots out 20 yards or so and back, he waits a minute, and takes the second pulse. A pulse that jumps from, say, 56 to 70 shows the horse is a bit fatigued. A low pulse rate, particularly the second pulse, is awesome. Willie usually vets in before the ride at 40.)

But, OMG, when Willie trotted out, Robert said he saw a couple of odd steps again! Just slight and only a couple, not consistent. OMG! I had felt nothing again all day. 

But we still came back to do the BC showing an hour later with the vet Dick, a thorough exam and a trot-out, and Willie looked perfect!

When he finished his exam on Willie, Dick said, “I’m gonna tell you two things about your horse.” I thought, uh oh, what’s wrong! Tell me, I always want to learn. 

He said, “First of all, you still have a knot in his tail.” (oh yeah, I gotta get that out with some cowboy magic). “And second," Dick grinned, "I think he’s way too small for you.” My 16.2 or 17 hand horse. Lol!

And later in the evening at the awards, Willie not only got high vet score (!!!!) but Best Condition!!!!!  I love my Standardbred!!

I decided not to do an LD on day three, because I think there was something going on with this feet, possibly the pads that I squirted in when he had soft soles from two days of rain. We’d leave it on a great note. What a great weekend at Old Selam, still one of our most favorite rides!

Also, that rooster chicken was still hanging around ride camp, having dinner with everybody and planting himself front and center stage while a guy named Sam from the Idaho State Penitentiary - where the story of Old Selam the prison horse began in 1900 - told a mesmerizing story about Old Selam and the prison escapees he carried to freedom or almost-freedom, and while the ride awards were going on. 

A few people had tried to catch the rooster, and they got close, but they couldn’t quite get him. Someone said that if someone caught it, someone would take him home. You know how those “someone” rumors start. He’d obviously wandered away from some homes or been dumped there, and he looked quite at home around people and also must have been pretty adept at hiding in the forest.

 

Note The Raven on Willie's back, of course The Raven rode along with us this weekend. It's over 9000 miles for The Raven! 

and top photo by Steve Bradley! 

2025 Old Salem Part II: Cruising the 50 on Day One

August 30 2025

Hillie Willie and I would be riding Day 1's 50-miler with his BF (Best Frenemy) DWA Papillon. Pappy and Connie were entered in the AHA Arabian championship 50, so her goal was to top 10 in that division. She was going to let Pappy move out faster than he usually does, and Willie is long-strided enough and fit enough now that he he and Pappy should easily be able to cruise along together at that speed. It turned out to be Willie’s very comfortable moving-out pace.

Pappy got to lead because he gets really wound up if Willie trots beside him or too close behind him, and Pappy was really wound up at the start anyway because he thinks he’s a racehorse, which he never was, but he could’ve been, and he was out to conquer everybody in front of him. 

But after the first couple of miles, we ended up in this beautiful Bubble (nobody close in front or behind us) that lasted almost the entire first 25 mile loop. It was glorious. The day was glorious. The footing glorious. It was a cool morning, not smoky, the trails were perfect from Wednesday’s rains, and our horses ate up those two-track winding logging roads. We had a blast and got the 25-mile loop done in three hours.

Willie felt fabulous and strong the whole loop. But strangely, when we trotted out for Dick the vet, I thought I saw a slight bobble or two of his head as I glanced sideways, and Dick said there was something going on and he waved Joe the vet over to watch him trot out again. Oh dear! So I trotted Willie out again, and this time he was better, and Dick and Joe could not pinpoint what or where the "something" was, and it wasn’t consistent. Connie saw it, and she said she didn't know what that was. Never seen it before. Dick asked me to come back before we went out on the second loop and I said absolutely, I wouldn’t take my horse back out on a 25 mile loop if he was at all questionable. 

During the vet check I purposely didn’t try to find any stiff muscles, and I didn’t walk him around at all, just let him eat and rest and drink, because if there was anything going on, I wanted it to show up when I trotted him out again. When we went back for a trot out before we left on the second loop, Dick and the vet Robert watched him trot out, and said maybe they saw something and maybe not, but it was much much better, if it was even there at all. Dick said I could go out. I said I’d start out and if I felt anything I’d turn right around.

Well. I tried for 10 miles to find any kind of bad step or anything, and I couldn’t find one. So then I just quit worrying about it, and we had another great loop. We had a Bubble for a while, then lost it when four riders caught up with us and we played leapfrog for a while, and Pappy got all wound up again, and Willie got a bit wound up. I'd switched him to his jaquima halter for this loop, but he wasn’t uncontrollable, so that was good. We kept moving along at a good pace, and finally got a comfortable Bubble again ahead of the riders for the last part of the loop.

I still couldn't feel a single bad step, and Willie felt so strong and powerful. I am so amazed at this horse at how easily he just cruises along, and how he really seems to like it.

We finished that loop in 3 1/2 hours, and because there was a kerfuffle with trail markings, quite a few people ahead of us missed the correct trail unfortunately. We almost did, but we figured it out right away, fortunately. So that’s how we ended up in fifth and sixth places. And honestly, I couldn’t give a hoot about where I finish, I just want to complete my rides with a sound and healthy horse. In the end, nobody remembers where you finish, it doesn’t matter. The healthy sound horse matters.

I was holding my breath for the trot out, but Willie looked perfect. Another 50-mile finish for Hillbillie Willie. 

Go Standardbred!!!

So, during the ride when I thought my horse might end up lame, I thought, just let us get a completion on this ride, and we won’t do anymore this weekend. But on the second loop when my horse felt so strong, and didn’t take a single bad step, I thought we might do an LD on day two and/or day two and three. I would trot out for the vet in the morning and see if he could see anything. And of course if I started and felt anything at all, I'd just turn around back to camp.

Also, there was still that rooster chicken hanging around ridecamp. He made himself right at home front and center stage during the ride meeting and dinner.

**top photo by Steve Bradley** 
We let Pappy get a ways ahead of us before I let Willie go by Steve. He shifted to High Gear Pace to catch Pappy, so yeah that's his racing pace in the photo!

Hillbillie Willie’s Crazy Daze of Summer

July 19 2025

It’s always fun to go to a new ride. Hillbillie Willie loves new trails. And Crazy Daze, near Spokane, Washington would be slightly cooler than home, and in the forest, so, shade! It was rather a long drive (around 9 hrs) for a one-day ride, but, it fit well in our schedule for the upcoming 3-day Old Selam ride on august 29-31, where my big lofty goal is three 50s on Willie. (Subject to change of course.)

This time Willie and DWA Papillon would be making the trip, Pappy being Willie’s BF (Best Frenemy), as opposed to his BFF - Best Friend Forever DWA Barack.

Our ridecamp and the ride would take place in the Riverside State Park, over 9000 acres along the Little Spokane and the Spokane rivers. We’d be riding briefly on loop 1 and 2 along the inviting cool green Spokane river.

As usual Regina Rose chauffeured Connie and me and our steeds to the ride. Chris Sprague took over the ride this year, and thank you to Chris and to the ample volunteers who helped! Unfortunately only 12 started the 50 and 11 started the LD, but there were a good number of trail riders who also rode and had fun.

It was an early 6 AM start, and Connie and I fell in whenever we found a nice bubble. We weren’t out to win, just to finish! Willie and Pappy had never ridden together, but Pappy is fitter than Willie, and I figured they might be able to match pace pretty well together. And anyway pretty much Willie was not going to let his BF get out of his sight on the trail since they travelled all this way together!

Loop 1 and 2 were the same, a 20-mile loop, with loop 3 being a smaller inner 10-mile circle. After a couple of miles along a soft single track trail, we dropped down into the aptly named Deep Creek, devoid of water but a rocky boulder-y SOB with a good rocky climb out. 

Pic by connie

The ponies took turns leading for a few miles, but any time Willie was in front, he wanted a small bubble with Pappy. He’d slow down his trot as much as possible to keep Pappy close, and he’d turn his head one way then the other, never straight, because he was keeping his Popeye eyeballs on Pappy. Pappy really wanted to be in front anyway, because he got a bit anxious following behind, so it just worked out best that Willie and I stayed behind him. Willie’s bubble was still pretty small, he did not want to be more than two horse lengths behind Pappy! He’s not like that when he rides with other new Instant Best Friends on other rides. He can go far in front or far behind them, (or solo), but when he’s with Pappy or Barack, his bubble shrinks a lot. 

BFFs when they are eating grass together on the trail

Not so much BFFs when Willie dares to trot beside Pappy

It was a fun day, hot but not too hot, working our way along the woods, through some nice grassy fields, above and briefly along the Spokane River. We did a lollipop on the first two loops where a nice couple took our numbers and re-supplied us with cold water! Water troughs were every four miles or so, and the horses really appreciated that. As did I, because by loop 2 I was dunking my cool vest in every one of them and sponging the horses off.

Low clearance

Vet check

At the second vet check, after 40 miles, Pappy had a slight hitch in his gitalong (probably found that rock with his name on it), so, oh no! Willie would have to go out and do the last 10-mile loop solo! So when it was time, I climbed aboard, and I urged him into a trot leaving camp, leaving behind his BF. The first mile or two Willie was a bit sad, but then, he just went into his efficient agreeable forward trot, enjoying some new trails in the forest. We didn’t encounter anybody except for a couple of pleasant bike riders who pulled over for us, and then suddenly we were back in camp, back for the finish and a re-uniting with BF Pappy.

At Willie’s last ride, City of Rocks, it took him a while to pulse down at the vet checks and finish, and his pulse was a good 10 beats higher all day. Here at Crazy Days, it took him a few minutes to pulse down at each vet check, so I wasn’t going to show for BC, because I knew he wouldn’t have a good CRI. I got talked into it though, so we showed. And I was right, his CRI was 54-72. But everything else was good, so another 50 miles in the books for Hillbillie Willie!

Willie pacing along!

Pic by Adrienne